Omake: Bigger and Badder

Omake: Bigger and Badder

Clair Blackthorn sighs and checks the clock on the wall of her office once more, annoyance and doubt beginning to simmer inside her.

Dragon Tamers are a rare breed of trainer as few have the nerve, the knowledge, and the determination to raise arguably the most volatile pokemon type in the world. Dragons are synonymous with power, prestige, and in the worst cases, terrible ruin. Not just anyone can be a Dragon Tamer, as the Dragon-types themselves would never respect a weak trainer. Ha! Humans in their entirety are a speedbump for dragons. Only the most worthy can command them.

That's why when her cousin Lance called her all in a tizzy about some trainer with "The most magnificent dragon I've ever seen!", Clair was a bit skeptical.

Some Hoenn-native named Lee Henson apparently owns some undiscovered Dragon-type, and impressed Drake of Hoenn's Elite 4 so much that he contacted Lance. Lance, the red-headed goofball, was beside himself and called Claire asking if she could take the time to meet this Lee Henson and discuss his dragon. If not for some Champion conference in Unova, Lance would have done it himself, he said.

Humoring her cousin, Clair sent Lee an email asking if he could spare the time to meet her. Lee proved to be rather pleasant in personality if technology illiterate. After several attempts to send a video of his dragon, he gave up and sheepishly asked if he could just fly to Blackthorn City and show her.Follow current novels at novelhall.com)

The Blackthorn Gym Leader jiggles the mouse of her computer and opens the last email from Lee, cheerfully saying "I'm on my way!"

He's over an hour late.

Knock knock knock!

Clair looks up sharply to her office door. "Come in!"

The door is cracked open and one of her newer Gym trainers pokes his head in. Clair tries to recall his name, as her assistant normally deals with the gym trainers, but comes up with nothing. "Ma'am?" He asks with nerves unbecoming of a Dragon Tamer. "I think your 3 o'clock is circling overhead. He's starting to alarm the townspeople"

The blue-headed Gym Leader stands and palms her Dragonair's pokeball from her belt. "Thank you, Kyle. I'll take care of it. Back to what you were doing," she orders as she steps around her desk and past him with long strides.

"Erm, it's Carter, ma'am" the young man corrects, going ignored.

Clair walks through her Gym and throws open the front doors imperiously. Shielding her eyes from the sun with one hand, she uses the other to press the button on Dragonair's pokeball as she scans the skies.

Snap-hiss!

Dragonair, her blue serpentine Dragon-type materializes on a flash of light next to her, and Dragonair needs no prompting to inspect the blue expanse above her like her trainer.

There!

"I see them," Clair squints at a black, vaguely reptilian shape circling above the town. The silhouette certainly looks like a dragon. "Dragonair, be a dear and tell them to land before they really earn a piece of my mind."

Dragonair is up into the air in a flash, flying through the wind in graceful a serpentine S like an Ekans might swim through water. She soars up to the figure flying around, circles it then turns and dive bombs back at the ground so fast Clair swears she sees the beginnings of a sonic cone.

With a squeak of utter terror, Dragonair wraps herself around Clair and tries to pull her trainer back inside the Gym.

"Dragonair?! What's gotten into you?!" Clair plants her heels into the earth and resists her ace's incredible strength as long as she can. She grits her teeth. "Did they do something to you? Answer me!"

The serpentine dragon just shakes her head frantically, making her wing-like ears flap, but she goes deathly still when a huge shadow passes overhead. An odd, unpleasant feeling begins to niggle in the back of Clair's brain, jabbing at her atrophied human instincts.

Something is wrong.

Several people in the street gasp.

A baby begins to cry from a home across the street.

A Tyranatar walking past with his trainer begins to visibly sweat.

THUD!

The entire city block rattles as something lands behind her. Slowly, Clair turns around, and all at once, she understands why Lance freaked out.

"Good observation!" Lee points to the boy with a wide smile. "Next, the mouth!" He slides up Nergi's side and fearlessly opens her jaws, not minding the razor teeth as thick as his wrist.

Again, the dragon just appears bored and lets her trainer molest her with impunity.

"Nergigante, being mono-Dragon, aren't ones for breath attacks. It's not that they can't learn, they just don't need them." He opens the dragon's maw wide, easily enough to snap him in half. "Look at her cheeks and notice the jaw muscles. Nergigante can exert a whopping sixty-thousand PSI worth of bite force! She can crunch through steel and barely feel it. When she's taken down her prey, this lets her chow down through thick hide and pry off armor easily. The short muzzle on a Nergigante means that biting isn't a go-to attack, but with how wide they can open their jaws"

Clair feels her mouth drop open and hears her trainers gasp when Lee opens Nergi's jaws nearly a hundred-and-ten degrees, then lays himself in her mouth back first!

"Take a look at that!" The madman has the nerve to raise his head and smirk at them. "She can get her mouth open wide enough to bite down on six men at once. Isn't that something?"

One of the gym trainers, a younger girl in her teens, begins to look green in the face at the thought.

Lee pulls himself from the dragon's mouth, and she shuts her jaws with a click before leveling her trainer with an impatient look. "Aw, I know you don't like being gaped at, honey. Lemme show them one more thing, okay?"

Nergigante growls. Her jaws shiver, and out comes a sound that would be right at home coming from a creature that popped out of a nightmare, not a pokemon.

Someone squeaks.

"Please?" Lee laces his fingers together and gives the Dragon-type a piteous, begging look.

'This is it.' Clair thinks, preparing herself to be coated in gore. 'This time he messed up. Showing that much weakness to a dragon?'

Nergi's caustic yellow eyes finally look away after a long minute, then the monstrous reptile lets out a sound like a booming groan before raising a foreleg, giving them a view of her underbelly.

Lee's grin is blinding. "You all are in for a rare treat! Take a peek at this!" He steps under Nergi, almost not needing to duck his head, then he stops and looks back at them. "Well? C'mon. My baby girl is very patient, but it has limits. Don't make her wait all day," he says beckoning them to join him under the hulk of scales and agony.

For a second, Clair and her trainers are frozen, wondering just what the hell is wrong with this man, then Nergi growls again and shocks them into moving. As a group, they shuffle under Nergi and duck their heads despite having plenty of clearance.

'What am I doing?' Clair wonders to herself, slowly feeling her nerves fray. 'What the fuck am I doing?!'

"Notice the beauuuutiful sunset-colored scales on her belly. I know I should start on something academic, but by the Star Sapphire..." Lee runs a hand on Nergi's smooth underside. "These scales are why ancient people thought Nergigante were agents of ruin and renewal. These fantastic colors reminded them of the setting sun, then thus the end of an era when seen from the ground. Considering the preferred prey of these gorgeous dragons, I totally understand." The wildman reaches up and stands on the tips of his toes, pressing his face and arms to the orange and red scaly belly with a look of contentment. Clair has to still her heart when Nergi jumps from the unexpected hug.

"While the belly is the least armored part, it can still shrug off anything short of full-power rifle rounds. Not that it matters much, considering the whole regeneration thing. Males have harder scales and even a few spines under here, but females?" Lee sighs dreamily. "Nergigante don't do anything by half, motherhood included. These scales are soft enough to cradle an egg and kept at a constant temperature of 102 degrees Fahrenheit, or 38.8 celsius to insure good incubation. Lifemated pairs of Nergigante will sleep cuddled belly-to-belly, both for bonding and to keep an egg warm in a subpar nest. Touching these scales is a privilege few ever get in their lives, and cuddling a Nergigante is unheard of in most parts." He pulls away from his dragon and points up. "Go ahead and give them a feel. You may not ever get the chance again."

No one moves.

Finally, Clair grits her teeth and refuses to let fear of a dragon, her specialty, stop her before one of her trainees proves themselves braver than her. She pulls the glove off of her left hand and raises it, slowly touching

...The softest scales she's ever felt. Oh Arceus above, it's not right for a creature this fierce to be this incredible to touch. The warmth is divine. Not too hot, but just enough to set her nerves at ease. For a moment, she envies the man before her for having this all to himself whenever he wants.

'Draco ancestors' She gulps. 'What enraptured Lance? This dragon's power, or feeling this?'

"Erm, Mister Lee?"

Clair reluctantly pulls her hand away from Nergigante, turning to see Kenny was his name? Kenny raise his hand as if he was in a classroom. "I noticed that you keep referencing Nergi's prey, but one thing seems odd," He looks down at the notebook in his hand.

"Go on?" Lee nods.

"What do Nergigante hunt if they need so many overwhelming attack methods?"

"Ah? I didn't say?" Lee blinks. "Nergigante are consummate carnivores. They can eat just about any other creature, but in the wild?" His smile is deceptively gentle. "They hunt other dragons."

Clair feels her frayed nerves unravel in one fell swoop. "Damn it all, Lance"